1. Technical Field
The invention relates, in general, to a wire harness, particularly having a function of maintaining a shape thereof, which has a sheathing member for protecting a plurality of wires, and a method of maintaining a shape of the wire harness.
2. Background Art
A wire harness disclosed in JP-A-2004-224156 is a wire harness that is bent along an arranging path thereof with respect to a metal pipe for protecting electric wires. The wire harness disclosed in JP-A-2004-224156 includes three high-voltage electric wires and three metal protection pipes which respectively receive the three high-voltage electric wires for protection.
The high-voltage electric wire connects a motor mounted at a front portion of a vehicle and a battery mounted at a middle or rear portion of the vehicle. The wire harness is arranged from the battery at the middle or rear portion of the vehicle to the motor at the front portion of the vehicle through an under-floor located outside a vehicle body frame.
The metal protection pipe is arranged to protect the high-voltage electric wire from pebbles or water. The metal protection pipe is arranged to be rigid enough to protect the high-voltage electric wire from pebbles or water and to prevent deformation of the high-voltage electric wire. Furthermore, since the metal protection pipe is made of metal, the metal protection pipe serves as an electromagnetic shield.
The wire harness is manufactured by inserting a high-voltage electric wire through a straight metal protection pipe and then bending the metal protection pipe along an arranging path of the wire harness at an under-floor of a vehicle, thereby forming a bent-type wire harness.
The bent-type wire harness manufactured in a manner as described above is then transported from a wire harness manufactory to a vehicle manufacturer's assembling factory.
In the assembling factory, the bent-type wire harness will be mounted at a predetermined position in the vehicle, thereby completing the arranging process.